‘Leadership is not confined to a single sector, title or institution. It is a responsibility that stretches across technology, culture, sport, education, entrepreneurship and community development.’ As Executive Chairperson of the African Monarch Group and a representative of the Xhosa Kingdom, HRH Princess Azola Mabinza has built a career around connecting these worlds while creating opportunities for young people and women to participate more fully in them.
Her career in technology began in an environment where women were still significantly underrepresented. As a systems engineer at Broll | Cushman & Wakefield, she was the sole female systems engineer in her team, working on proptech systems serving corporate real estate operations across Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. Her experience in a male-dominated technical environment became part of a broader commitment to gender parity in ICT and to developing African solutions for African challenges.
That commitment has extended into entrepreneurship. Mabinza co-founded Khula Lula with her sister Milisa, a female-owned private equity initiative focused on addressing funding gaps facing women-led technology startups. The venture reflects her belief that representation cannot stop at participation. Women also need access to capital, ownership and the decision-making spaces that determine which ideas receive the opportunity to grow.
Technology, however, is only one part of Mabinza’s vision. Increasingly, she has positioned culture and indigenous knowledge alongside innovation as essential components of Africa’s future. Through Thandazwe Heritage, where she serves as a director, she works to preserve indigenous knowledge and create platforms through which younger generations can engage with their heritage.
This intersection of technology, identity and storytelling is also shaping her work in media. Mabinza hosts The Breakthrough Table, a television talkshow that introduces young people to different careers, entrepreneurship and possibilities for their futures. She is also developing Culture Drops, a podcast designed to amplify African stories, heritage and indigenous knowledge for audiences beyond the continent. Its mission is to create a space where African identity is not simply preserved, but actively shared, understood and reimagined.
Her work with young people extends into education technology. Through her engagement with AI-powered learning initiatives, she has focused on using technology to expand access to learning for South African children. She has also developed ideas around digital tools that connect technology with practical community needs, including Wonga, a digital stokvel concept intended to support Early Childhood Development Centres with financial independence, resources and training.
For Mabinza, innovation also has a human dimension. Her work with sport has increasingly centred on inclusion, wellbeing and social cohesion. She is involved with Rise As One, a global initiative using sport, music and youth engagement to create pathways for leadership, opportunity and peace. In 2026, she participated in discussions linked to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women around the role of sport and music in creating greater unity and opportunity, particularly for girls and young women.
Her partnerships span organisations including Special Olympics South Africa, Nike’s Sports for Social Change network and FIFA’s FARE Network. Her approach is deliberately inclusive, with a particular interest in ensuring that young people and people with intellectual disabilities are able to participate in sport and experience the health, dignity and connection that it can provide. Her work through Rise As One has positioned sport not simply as competition, but as a platform for community development and leadership.
That breadth of work has also taken Mabinza into international convening and advocacy. She has participated in global conversations around women’s empowerment, technology, youth development, peacebuilding and social cohesion, including the G20 ecosystem and United Nations platforms. Her participation at the 2026 NGO CSW70 Forum further reflected her growing focus on using international platforms to connect African perspectives with global conversations around women’s leadership and inclusion.
Yet beneath the range of projects is a consistent leadership philosophy: Ubuntu. Mabinza describes leadership as service to her people, to young people and to generations still to come. For her, progress cannot mean moving forward while leaving identity behind. Her commitment to indigenous knowledge sits alongside her interest in artificial intelligence, digital platforms and emerging technology because she sees no contradiction between the two. Africa can embrace the future without abandoning the knowledge and values that have shaped its communities.
That philosophy is increasingly informing the kind of leader she is intentionally becoming. Mabinza is focused on leading with purpose and integrity, staying ahead of technological change while remaining grounded in African identity, and continuing to deepen her understanding of indigenous knowledge. She is also challenging herself to think beyond individual achievements towards systems that can create opportunities for many more people.
Her five-year vision is ambitious: an Africa where young people, particularly young women, have greater access to technology, economic opportunity, sport, cultural heritage and dignity. She wants to see an Africa that does not simply consume innovation created elsewhere, but develops its own solutions, builds its own enterprises and contributes ideas to the world from a position of confidence and cultural grounding.
The infrastructure for that vision is already being built. Through television, podcasts, documentaries, lectures and heritage programming, she is creating platforms for young people to encounter new careers and narratives. Through entrepreneurship and technology, she is exploring ways to address economic and educational gaps. Through sport and international partnerships, she is working to create more inclusive communities. And through diplomacy and peacebuilding initiatives, she is extending her focus beyond individual programmes towards broader social cohesion.
Her journey has earned recognition across technology, leadership and women’s empowerment, including being named among the 100 Most Notable Women in Africa in 2024 and receiving the Tech Trailblazer Award in 2023. She was also recognised as a Young Female Rising Star by GapX in 2024 and named Best Systems Engineer in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands by SheMillionaire in 2025. In 2024, she was also a finalist for the Fabulous Woman Humanitarian Award.
But for Mabinza, recognition is less important than what comes next. Her advice to women navigating gatekept industries is to stop waiting for permission to belong. Own your expertise, bring your humanity into the room and understand that leadership is not only about securing a seat. It is about using that seat to create more room for others.
It is a philosophy that captures the breadth of her own journey. Whether she is working with technology, investment, sport, heritage or diplomacy, Mabinza is interested in the same fundamental question: how can the spaces that shape Africa become more inclusive, more ethical and more reflective of the people they are meant to serve?
Her answer is to build across boundaries – connecting innovation with culture, ambition with service and leadership with Ubuntu. In doing so, she is developing a distinctly African vision of what it means to lead into the future.
HRH Princess Azola Mabinza is an honouree in the 2026 Future 54 Leading Women Cohort, recognising women shaping Africa through leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and meaningful impact.
